Ira Flatow Guest DJ Set

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Ira Flatow is the host and executive producer of Science Friday – a wildly popular science news show on NPR. Mr. Flatow joined Joey Spehar on The Morning Mix for a set of "science songs". You can hear Science Friday on our sister station WESA Fridays at 2:00pm (EST).

When it comes to choosing songs about science, “there are a lot to choose from,” Flatow says. One of his picks from a show he loves and has been on was “The Big Bang Theory Theme” by Barenaked Ladies.

Flatow also chose the song “Science is Real” by They Might Be Giants saying it’s a song he really believes in. There are many around the country who question science, he says, and it’s interesting to see this song as an “intersection between science and the arts.” “This is their way of telling the public “yeah, science is real. You should believe in it,” and that’s why it’s one of my favorite songs.”

They Might Be Giants are fond of science as they have written about in other songs too, he says. It’s not every day a band has to rewrite a song on account of new scientific evidence, but this band did so on its song “Why Does the Sun Shine?” when they found out they got the physics wrong. Flatow ends with the song “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby which Spehar says “you can’t talk science music without mentioning this song.”

Meanwhile in terms of science news, Flatow has no news to break, but a big topic at hand is Flight 370 and how we could lose something like that in the modern age. “It’s a very interesting combination of science, technology, and how humans can deal with it, and we’re gonna talk about [on the show] whether we can fix that system so we never lose a plane again.”